Furniture-leg attachment



(No Model.)

0.3111311. FURNITURE LEG ATTACHMENT. .No. 568,397. Patented Sept. 29, 18%.

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Attorney UNITED STATES ATENT FFICE.

CHARLES BIRELY, OF SI-IELBYVILLE, INDIANA.

FURNITURE-LEG ATTACHMENT.

SPECIFICA'JIIQN forming part of Letters Patent No. 568,397, dated September 29, 1896.

Application filed August 23, 1895. Serial NO- 560,285. (No model.)

Z '0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES BIRELY, of Shelbyville, Shelby county, Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furniture-Leg Attachments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention pertains to means for attaching legs to furniture and is peculiarly applicable to such articles as parlor-tables formed with a plain thin top having legs directly attached thereto.

The invention will be readily understood from the following description, taken in 0on nection with the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of an exemplifying table-top with a leg attached in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2, a similar view, the table-top, however, appearing in vertical section in the plane of the dotted line a of Fig. 3; Fig. 3, a bottom view of a corner portion of the table-top, the leg being absent; Fig. 4, a rear elevation of the leg; Fig. 5, a plan of the leg, and Fig. 6 a perspective View of the leg.

It being understood that the table-top is provided with four legs, one at each corner, and that the legs are alike and similarly attached, a description and illustration of one corner of the table with its leg attachment will be sufficient for an understanding of my improvement.

In the drawings, A indicates the usual thintable-top; B, the leg at one of the corners thereof, which leg may be round or square or any desired or usual form, the illustration showing the leg as rectangular in horizontal section and as being attached to the tabletop at an angle, so as to give the legs a spread at the base of the structure; 0, a dovetail groove in the under surface of the corner of the table where the upper end of the leg is to be attached, this groove having a depth proportioned to the thickness of the table-top, the groove being closed atone end and having full depth at that end, the depth of the groove decreasing from the closed end to nothing at the opposite end; D, a dovetail tenon formed on the upper end of the leg, its width corresponding with that of the dovetail groove 0 of the table-top, the leg having at the foot of the tenon a shoulder extending along the sides of the tenon and also across the heel of the tenon; E, the closed deeper end of the dovetail groove 0, and F the shallower open end of the groove.

Groove O is formed by means of a rotary dovetail-cutter, started into the table-top at F and increasing its depth of cutting till it reaches the point E, the cutter then being backed out of the groove. In the drawings the top of the dovetail groove is seen as bein g on the arc of a circle, the result produced by feeding the cutter to its work in a circu lar path instead of in a straight path. The operation of the cutter leaves the end E of the groove closed and of semicircular dovetail form at the end.

The tenon D on the leg has one of its ends semicircular to fit the closed end of groove E. The leg is put in place by starting the tenon in at F, the leg at that time taking an abnormal angle to the table-top,and the tenon finding the dovetail groove shallower than itself; but as the tenon is forced onward into the groove the angle of the leg to the tabletop changes and the depth of the groove increasing until finally, when the leg is driven home, the tenon is seated in the end E of the groove, the shoulder at the base of the tenon fitting tightly against the under surface of the table-top.

In Fig. 2the leg is indicated as not having been driven quite home to the end of the groove. The fit of the tenonin the groove may be as tight as consistent with proper driving, and glue may be applied to the groove and tenon. In Fig. 2 it is to be observed that the top of the ten on comes against the roof of the groove. In some cases, as where-the table-tops are thin and highly finished, it is desirable that the tenon D be of less depth than the groove, so as to leave an air-space over the tenon, it being found that such air-space avoids a peculiar spotting of the upper surface of the table-top, which would otherwise result.

The lower edges of the dovetail slot formed on the under side of the table-top are parallel at the points where the slot is of full depth, but from the point Where the slot'begins to shallow to the point where its gradually decreasing depth becomes coincident with the under surface of the top the edges.

gradually flare or increase in width.

This is lines of said slot being parallel at its inner necessary Where the slot is made in a flat portion but gradually diverging near its outer surface in order that the tenon on the leg can enter therein and subsequently bind.

I claim as my invention- In a furniture-leg attachment, a fiat top or entrant portion, in combination with a leg having a dovetailed or undercut tcnon with parallel straight sides and a straight or flat inner end face, said tenon being forced into having in its under surface a dovetailed or said groove, substantially as described. undercut groove, the bottom of said groove being of uniform Width and being struck 011 the are of a circle from the commencement thereof to its extreme inner end, the surface CHARLES BIRETJY.

Witnesses:

CHARLES A. LEMING, Grins. L. DAVIS. 

